I am flying over the Pacific Ocean and watching the small plane slowly inch across the in-flight map displayed on the wall in front of me.  Still eight hours to go.  I am tired but I can’t sleep.  I hardly ever sleep on these long trans-pacific flights to and from China.  Yuck, I know I’ll be completely bushed for the next few days after I arrive home.  

While staring at the map all kinds of thoughts are racing through my tired head.  I have just completed two and a half weeks in China during which we had the honor to train over 320 pastors and Christian leaders in two provinces.  I feel exhausted but I also feel satisfied.  “Thanks, God, for carrying us through the last few weeks,” I pray.  “You are doing such incredible things.  Thanks for letting us be a part of your ministry in China.”

How awesome to spend time with Rev. Cai in Guangzhou, who serves as the Academic Dean of Guangdong Union Theological Seminary.  I met him for the first time last September.  After our meeting he said, “You must come back so you can help us train our students at our seminary.”  Not only did we get to train over 60 seminarians but we also handed out “Pastor Packs.” 

Twenty years earlier he graduated from the national seminary in Nanjing.  During his senior year he remembers my father coming to his seminary with an international teaching team conducting China Partner’s very first Pastoral Training Seminar. How awesome to think that the students who sat in that classroom during my dad’s training are now scattered all across China serving Jesus; Rev. Cai is one of them.  And now I have the privilege to continue the legacy of training his students.  

As I continue to fly above the Pacific I think to myself: “This is awesome.  There is nothing better than investing in others who WILL make Him known…in China and around the world.”

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:2)